After the Brooklyn Nets fell in the NBA Draft Lottery from the projected No. 6 pick to No. 8, much uncertainty surrounded where they would go from there. Even though many teams fell in the lottery, no team may have been more negatively impacted than the Nets.
Many of the teams in the lottery were able to at least say that they have a true star to build upon. The Charlotte Hornets, New Orleans Pelicans, and Utah Jazz were ahead of Brooklyn in the lottery standings, but at least they’ve had pieces to build around in the form of LaMelo Ball, Zion Williamson, and Lauri Markkanen.
Sure, the Nets have Cam Thomas, but he hasn’t quite made a winning impact yet. He’s a one-dimensional, pure scoring player, and Brooklyn needs something more than that to lead the franchise. Brooklyn could’ve made the best argument to hypothetically land Cooper Flagg at No. 1, but alas, the team sits at No. 8.
Many thought that because of the lottery slip, the Nets would cancel their NBA Draft series, SCOUT. The series was created to give fans an inside look at Brooklyn’s scouting department throughout this past season, leading up to the draft. After a disappointing lottery night, the Nets didn’t put out an episode for three weeks.
Now, the series has returned with episode two.
The second episode dives deeper into the life of NBA scouts, giving fans an inside look at meetings and ideologies surrounding the department. The episode went in on the assistant GM, B.J. Johnson. Johnson joined Brooklyn after working with USA Basketball, eventually becoming the director of player evaluation before this new position.
The episode also features an inside look at the family, Brooklyn’s scouting department has developed, interviewing other scouts as they work through the middle of the season. The episode is primarily set during the winter months, around the midpoint of the season for the Nets.
One thing to note is that this episode did not feature any in-depth evaluations of prospects themselves, but rather on the scouting department and day-to-day operations. Hopefully, the next episode will give us more of an inside look at evaluating players and who the Nets have been eyeing all season long.
